Marginalized Identities Research Articles

Metal like a hermit: Situating the ‘subcultural’ of Chinese metal music in the Chinese context

This article presents a discussion on how Chinese metal musicians situate the ‘subcultural’ of Chinese metal music in the ‘hermit’ concept in the Chinese context. Since it first appeared in mainland China in 1990, Chinese metal has been a subculture with a double marginality in relation to both Chinese society and the global metal scene. Accordingly, Chinese metal musicians have been trying to negotiate their marginal and subcultural identities through localized strategies, embodied notably as the appropriation of the concept of ‘hermit’. By examining recent symbolic material produced by Chinese metal musicians, this article provides a brief overview of how they translate the ‘subcultural’ of their metal music participation in relation to elitism, covert and passive resistance, and authentic national and individual identities through the ‘hermit’ concept.

Correction to: Sexual harassment disproportionately affects ecology and evolution graduate students with multiple marginalized identities in the United States

Correction to: Sexual harassment disproportionately affects ecology and evolution graduate students with multiple marginalized identities in the United States

Binge Drinking and Cannabis Use among Transgender and Gender-Diverse Young Adults in Michigan.

Substance use rates are higher among transgender and gender-diverse people than cisgender people. Rates of substance use are also higher among young adults compared with other age groups. However, little research examines substance use among transgender and gender-diverse young adults. This study examines factors associated with binge drinking and cannabis use among transgender and gender-diverse young adults in Michigan. Participants (N = 78; ages 18-25) completed an online survey that included demographics and substance use and related characteristics. Race, stimulant misuse, and sedative misuse were associated with more frequent binge drinking. Older age and past-year pain reliever misuse were associated with less frequent cannabis use. Past-year stimulant use and using cannabis alone were associated with more frequent cannabis use. These findings suggest that additional marginalized identities may increase the risk for maladaptive substance use. Future research should examine substance use behaviors and correlates to inform interventions among this population.

Investigating the association between educational attainment and allostatic load with risk of cancer mortality among African American women

BackgroundAfrican American (AA) women navigate the world with multiple intersecting marginalized identities. Accordingly, AA women have higher cumulative stress burden or allostatic load (AL) compared to other women. Studies suggest that AA women with a college degree or higher have lower AL than AA women with less than a high school diploma. We examined the joint effect of educational attainment and AL status with long-term risk of cancer mortality, and whether education moderated the association between AL and cancer mortality.MethodsWe performed a retrospective analysis among 4,677 AA women within the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 1988 to 2010 with follow-up data through December 31, 2019. We fit weighted Cox proportional hazards models to estimate adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) of cancer death between educational attainment/AL (adjusted for age, income, and smoking status).ResultsAA women with less than a high school diploma living with high AL had nearly a 3-fold increased risk (unadjusted HR: 2.98; 95%C CI: 1.24–7.15) of cancer death compared to AA college graduates living with low AL. However, after adjusting for age, this effect attenuated (age-adjusted HR: 1.11; 95% CI: 0.45–2.74). AA women with high AL had 2.3-fold increased risk of cancer death (fully adjusted HR: 2.26; 95% CI: 1.10–4.57) when compared to AA with low AL, specifically among women with high school diploma or equivalent and without history of cancer.ConclusionsOur findings suggest that high allostatic load is associated with a higher risk of cancer mortality among AA women with lower educational attainment, while no such association was observed among AA women with higher educational attainment. Thus, educational attainment plays a modifying role in the relationship between allostatic load and the risk of cancer death for AA women. Higher education can bring several benefits, including improved access to medical care and enhanced medical literacy, which in turn may help mitigate the adverse impact of AL and the heightened risk of cancer mortality among AA women.

Challenges South Asian immigrant youth face in transnational contexts

ABSTRACT South Asians form Canada's largest visible minority but face notable health inequities. Specifically, South Asian immigrant youth (SAIY) confront challenges like racial discrimination, stigma, and acculturative stress due to their marginalised identities. Limited research exists on the barriers they face adjusting to Canadian life. We interviewed two groups: SAIY aged 15–24 (N = 23) and unrelated parents of SAIY (N = 13). Analysing both generations helped capture young SAIY's challenges and parental insights. Our findings underscore the varied experiences of SAIY in Edmonton, Alberta, highlighting the need for better accessibility to social and healthcare services. This study offers a foundation for future research on SAIY's needs.

Analysis and Mitigation of Religion Bias in Indonesian Natural Language Processing Datasets

Previous studies have shown the existence of misrepresentation regarding various religious identities in Indonesian media. Misrepresentations of other marginalized identities in natural language processing (NLP) datasets have been recorded to inflict harm against such marginalized identities in cases such as automated content moderation, and as such must be mitigated. In this paper, we analyze, for the first time, several Indonesian NLP datasets to see whether they contain unwanted bias and the effects of debiasing on them. We find that two of the three data sets analyzed in this study contain unwanted bias, whose effects trickle down to downstream performance in the form of allocation and representation harm. The results of debiasing at the dataset level, as a response to the biases previously discovered, are consistently positive for the respective dataset. However, depending on the data set and embedding used to train the model, they vary greatly at the downstream performance level. In particular, the same debiasing technique can decrease bias on a combination of datasets and embedding, yet increase bias on another, particularly in the case of representation harm.

"These Places are easy to get into but Impossible to get out of": Women's Pathways to Psychiatric Institutions and Barriers to Community Reentry in India.

In India, where institutional-based mental health care is common, gender and other intersecting marginalized identities along with absent familial support contribute to women's admission and prolonged confinement to psychiatric institutions. However, an intersectional analysis of factors that prevent women with limited familial support from returning to their communities is lacking. This article is based on narratives of eleven women residing at a halfway home in an urban city in India, awaiting return to their communities. We include descriptions and an intersectional analysis of women's pathways to psychiatric institutions, their experiences receiving institutional-based mental health care, and the challenges they face as they contemplate returning to their communities. This study adds to the minimal research examining women's gendered pathways to psychiatric institutions in India. Women's narratives highlight that gender and illness-related disadvantages coupled with economic adversity that led to the initial admission also serve as deterrents to reentering the community.

Liliana Corobcaʹs Novels “Un an în Paradis” and “Kinderland” in Critical Reading from a Thematic Perspective

This article presents how the novels Un an în Paradis and Kinderland have been received by critics from a thematic perspective. Identity, memory, alienation, childhood are themes highlighted in the novels under review, which contribute to the representation of a real, believable world. Liliana Corobcaʹs prose is defined by narratively constructed worlds, worlds that expose taboo subjects, that illustrate limit-situations, that sustain a marginal identity. The author stands out in Romanian literature as a distinct voice, which surprises by the chosen themes, by the style of writing, by the constructed fictional worlds, which complement the known real world. She is a writer who looks for real events to expose fictionally. Her prose is the result of a interplay between fiction and non-fiction. The authenticity of her writing is sustained by the fictionalization of individual or collective memory.

Black Women Been Knew: Understanding Intersectionality to Advance Justice

Although the term intersectionality was coined by Kimberl. Crenshaw in the late 1980s, Black feminist scholars have long interrogated how having multiple marginalized identities reproduce inequity in their daily lives. Black women have been at the forefront of justice efforts way before it was popular and thus, continue to offer insight into ways to advance justice and equity for not only themselves, but for people and communities experiencing systemic oppression. This article examines Black Feminist Traditions to contextualize how Black women have remained resilient despite systemic racism and injustice. Additionally, this article offers strategies to thoroughly integrate Black Feminist Theory into public administration.

Teacher Identity in Language Pedagogy. A Narrative Perspective from Two Colombian Teacher Educators’ Experience

This paper accounts for the inspection of two language teachers’ identities and language pedagogy through six conversations in a sixth-month period at two universities in Bogotá, Colombia. By adopting a no-methodology perspective, this study resorts to the notion of narrative to document language pedagogy experiences and inspect how the traditional, yet static notions of teacher identities and language pedagogy, are configured and re-configured through the pedagogical practice. Therefore, findings revealed that English language teachers contest marginal and hegemonic identity constructions through enacting their pedagogy conception. As a result, alternative ways of being and doing are exposed as a mechanism to exist and re-signify what language pedagogy has meant in the English language teaching field.

Intersectional approaches to risk, resilience, and mental health in marginalized populations: Introduction to the special section.

Although persistent health disparities affecting marginalized communities have long been recognized, marginalized populations (i.e., oppressed groups with stigmatized social identities) have remained significantly understudied in clinical science and allied disciplines. To reduce mental health disparities, it is critical to examine the experiences of Black, Indigenous, and people of color and sexual and gender minority populations within an intersectional framework (i.e., intersection of multiple marginalized identities) and to identify processes through which these experiences relate to risk and resilience for negative mental health outcomes. The goal of this special section is to highlight recent efforts to address this critical need by examining mental health among marginalized individuals impacted by multiple systems of oppression. These studies demonstrate the generative potential of intersectional approaches in clinical science. Our hope is that these studies will encourage future work in this field, with the ultimate aim of addressing disparities in underserved and understudied populations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

An intersectional approach to exploring lived realities and harnessing the creativity of ethnic minority youth for health gains: protocol for a multiphase mixed method study

BackgroundUnderstanding the diversity and multiplicity of identities experienced by youth in Aotearoa (Te reo Māori name of the country) New Zealand (NZ) is vital to promoting their wellbeing. Ethnic minority youth (EMY) in NZ (defined as those identifying with Asian, Middle Eastern, Latin American and African ethnic origins) have been historically under-studied and under-counted, despite reporting high levels of discrimination, a major determinant of mental health and wellbeing and potentially a proxy for other inequities. In this paper, we describe the protocol for a multi-year study that examines, using an intersectional approach, how multiple marginalised identities impact mental and emotional wellbeing of EMY.MethodsThis is a multiphase, multi-method study designed to capture the diversity of lived realities of EMY who self-identify with one or more additional marginalised intersecting identity (the population referred here as EMYi). Phase 1 (Descriptive study) will involve secondary analyses of national surveys to examine the prevalence and relationships between discrimination and wellbeing of EMYi. Phase 2 (Study on public discourse) will analyse data from media narratives, complemented by interviews with stakeholders to explore discourses around EMYi. Phase 3 (Study on lived experience) will examine lived experiences of EMYi to discuss challenges and sources of resilience, and how these are influenced by public discourse. Phase 4 (Co-design phase) will use a creative approach that is youth-centered and participatory, and will involve EMYi, creative mentors and health service, policy and community stakeholders as research partners and advisors. It will employ participatory generative creative methods to explore strengths-based solutions to discriminatory experiences.DiscussionThis study will explore the implications of public discourse, racism and multiple forms of marginalisation on the wellbeing of EMYi. It is expected to provide evidence on the impacts of marginalisation on their mental and emotional wellbeing and inform responsive health practice and policy. Using established research tools and innovative creative means, it will enable EMYi to propose their own strength-based solutions. Further, population-based empirical research on intersectionality and health is still nascent, and even more scarce in relation to youth. This study will present the possibility of expanding its applicability in public health research focused on under-served communities.

Piloting a Flexible Solicited Diary Study With Marginalized Latina Women During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Little is known about the experiences of minority stress among Latina women who have sex with both women and men (WSWM), a sexual and gender minority group situated at the intersection of multiple marginalized identities. The current article presents an exploratory study aimed at addressing this knowledge gap. The research utilized a flexible diary-interview method (DIM) to investigate stress-related experiences among Mexican American WSWM residing in an economically disadvantaged community in the U.S. during the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. A detailed description of the study is provided, including information on the background, methodology, participants' experiences, and how the project was managed remotely by a virtual research team. Twenty-one participants were asked to maintain a diary for a 6-week period spanning from March to September 2021. They submitted weekly entries in diverse formats (visual, audio, typed, and handwritten) through a user-friendly website or via mail while communicating regularly with researchers over the phone. Following the diarizing period, in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted to clarify pertinent information within the entries and validate researchers' preliminary interpretations. Out of the initial 21 enrollees, 14 participants stopped diarizing at different stages, and nine completed the entire study. Despite facing challenges exacerbated by the pandemic, participants reported the diary-keeping process as a positive experience that offered an authentic outlet to share parts of their lives they seldom reveal. The implementation of this study highlights two significant methodological insights. Firstly, it emphasizes the value of employing a DIM to explore intersectional narratives. Secondly, it underscores the importance of adopting a flexible and sensitive approach in qualitative health research, particularly when engaging individuals from minoritized groups.

Marginal Identities and Bodies in North African Trance Dance: A Celebration of Madness

The aim of this paper is to explore the relationship between marginal identities, bodies, and the performance of madness in the North African trance dance. It casts light on festive rituals where the illnesses of the soul are manifested through corporeal expressions that variably combine the religious, the spiritual, the socio-cultural, and the psychological aspects. Rather than being stigmatized or pathologized, madness is celebrated to grant a legitimate space and voice to the disadvantaged and marginalized individuals. It is hence posited to produce a counter-discourse that symbolically speaks out against the dictates of formal discourses that control the lives of men and women and shape their identities. By applying a qualitative research method, this study involves observing subjects' corporeal performances in trance from a practice-based perspective. The descriptive analysis of the night of trance (the Lila) takes insights from social semiotics and the concept of the 'meta-sign' to account for the minimal details of madness and the corporeal signs into play. There are stages to follow and intricate bodily moments that would drive the observer of madness to where the order of society comes to a standstill. However, the focus of interest is to assess the readiness of women and men to play other than their normative sociocultural roles in society. The varying dramatic scenes with musical melodies, colors, spirits, litanies, and personifications are overwhelmingly loaded with the passion to celebrate and the desire to transcend time and space. The participants are voluntarily involved in trance as an outlet for their collective endeavor to exteriorize their own mental anxieties and whims. Their sole intention is to defy the prevailing ideologies and the pressures their bodies suffer from. Dancing for them embodies the psychiatric that helps the patients to be dispossessed and hopefully be cured. These observed rites of trance are found to be intentionally performed to relieve individuals from different types of alienation suffered in a 21st century modern world that marginalizes, downgrades, and chains them to the rigidity of disciplinary powers.

Monstrous: A Transracial Adoption Story by Sarah Myer

Reviewed by: Monstrous: A Transracial Adoption Story by Sarah Myer Danica Ronquillo Myer, Sarah Monstrous: A Transracial Adoption Story; written and illus. by Sarah Myer. First Second, 2023 [272p] Trade ed. ISBN 9781250268792 $25.99 Paper ed. ISBN 9781250268808 $17.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R* Gr. 9-12 Living in Maryland with her white parents in the 1980’s, Korean adoptee Sarah Myer has an active imagination. Her older adoptee sister and classmates find her rambunctious personality distasteful, but she is steadfast in her love for mermaids, drawing, and watching anime and cosplaying to express her queerness. These outlets help Sarah feel “safe and happy, shrouded in my identity as an artist. But something dark still lurked beneath”; she doesn’t know who her own birth parents are and cannot feel a sense of belonging anywhere as she experiences racism and bullying at school. As she enters middle and high school, she increasingly uses violence to defend herself and push people away, unable to control her anger and feeling as though she is a monster. This is a fierce graphic memoir with grit and honesty, and Myer’s mix of cartoon and sketch illustrations powerfully portray the loneliness of exploring marginalized identities within predominantly white, hetero spaces, with unsupportive faculty members and rising homophobia. While sparkling bright color palettes easily convey Sarah’s sense of joy and freedom at attending art and pop culture events, the bright hues contrast with the deforming panels, aggressive line work, and intense dialogue to skillfully capture Sarah’s dehumanizing experiences at school and deep insecurities. Visceral imagery of anatomical bodies and the ghoulish physical manifestation of anger represent Sarah’s raw, uncomfortable emotions. Eventually, Sarah finds a support system in her parents, who are sympathetic and admit their regrets for not doing enough for her, and in a theater club whose members genuinely want to be friends with her. Sarah’s father offers the keen observation that “sometimes people try to invade your world without trying to understand or respect it,” underscoring the book’s message to young people to find their happiness and build the life they want for themselves. End matter has an author’s note and adoptee and mental health resources. Copyright © 2023 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Centering race equity within youth workforce development: utilizing critical race theory

ABSTRACT COVID-19 has exacerbated stark racial and class inequities long present in the United States and other countries. As a field, workforce development supports and serves individuals at the intersections of multiple marginalized identities, with youth being a particularly important target population. The workforce development field can benefit from critically considering how racial equity can be formalized within activities. We offer Critical Race Theory (CRT) to advance theoretical understanding of the intersection of race and workforce development practice and use data from our recent research to examine how workforce development can approach efforts to further racial equity. First, we briefly review the literature related to racial disparities in employment and workforce training. We then describe CRT and its potential application to workforce systems. Finally, we present data from a recent study of local workforce development boards and conclude with suggestions to further race equity in employment and training for youth.

Why does political representation of the marginalised matter? Teaching classic literature using intersectional and decolonial approaches

Political theorists and scientists have published extensive scholarship on the political representation of the marginalised. Some notable and widely cited scholars include Jane Mansbridge, Anne Phillips, Iris M. Young, Suzanne Dovi, and Melissa Williams. They have mostly focused on the importance of representation of women and argue that such representation enhances the functioning of representative democracies. This strand of literature has made significant contributions to contemporary research, especially on studies showing how and why political representation matters. Underdiscussed, nonetheless, is how such classic studies should be taught in a classroom in the context of global movements, namely #BlackLivesMatter, #StopAsianHate, and #MeToo, where various marginalised identities intersect when subjected to oppression. We contest and strengthen some of these ideas in extant scholarship promoting diversity politics by taking intersectional and decolonial approaches. We advocate for prioritising intersectionality over diversity and for decolonising teaching political representation by centring the feminist works of BIPOC and Global South scholars. By challenging both the absence of minoritised women as political actors as well as scholars—as a matter of the production of knowledge and as political activism—we create an inclusive learning environment. We enable both the educators and students to reflect on their positionalities and furthermore achieve the long-term goal of equality in the classrooms, political institutions, and beyond.

“We’re Not Gonna Talk about This, It Didn’t Happen. You’re Confused”: Adverse Communication in Family Responses to Mental Health, Childhood Sexual Assault, and LGBTQ Identities

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people disproportionately report high exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). In this study, we examine the ways that LGBTQ people with high ACEs also describe experiencing adverse communication with family systems about mental health, childhood sexual abuse (CSA), and their gender identity. From interviews with a racially diverse sample of 82 LGBTQ people in South Texas, we analyze how this adverse communication—including gaslighting, silence, denial and ignoring—is attentive to courtesy stigma dynamics. This adverse communication impacts transgender people, cisgender LGBTQ people, and Black or Latinx LGBTQ people differently; for example, Black and Latinx LGBTQ people discussed adverse communication about mental health and therapy within their families that prioritized the respectability of the family. These findings provide insight into family dynamics and communication practices in the lives of LGBTQ people, particularly at the intersections of multiple marginalized identities.

"Did I get into the twilight zone somehow?": sexual and gender minority cancer caregiver experiences during COVID.

The COVID-19 pandemic created new challenges for cancer patients and caregivers. Little is known about the confluence of the pandemic and people with multiple marginalized identities, such as those in the Sexual and Gender Minority (SGM) community. We conducted a mixed-methods pilot study using semi-structured interviews to elicit experiences of cancer among a diverse population of SGM patients and caregivers and a matched set of cisgender heterosexual (cishet) individuals. Here, we present qualitative findings focused on caregiver experiences as ascertained from the broader study. We discovered differences between SGM and cishet caregiving experiences, with SGM caregivers reporting less comfort in the cancer center environment; dissatisfaction with patient-provider communication; feeling excluded from their loved ones' care; and increased social isolation resulting from the caregiver experience. SGM and cishet caregivers described the detrimental impact of the pandemic. Our data suggest SGM caregivers experience additional burdens to cancer caregiving when compared to cishet peers. Although SGM and cishet caregivers reported challenges stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, challenges appeared greater and more acute for SGM caregivers. Pandemic-related findings point to overall gaps in SGM cancer caregiver supports that may be remedied by additional research and targeted intervention development.

Sexual harassment disproportionately affects ecology and evolution graduate students with multiple marginalized identities in the United States

Abstract Sexual harassment within academic institutions has profound impacts that may lead to the attrition of groups historically excluded from the biological sciences and related disciplines. To understand sexual harassment's effects on vulnerable communities within academia, we examined graduate student experiences with sexual harassment. In a survey of ecology and evolutionary biology programs across the United States, we found that 38% of the graduate student respondents were sexually harassed during their time in these programs. Sexual harassment disproportionately affected graduate students with multiple intersecting marginalized identities, and these experiences led to delays in completing graduate programs and shifts away from their desired careers. Our research highlights the need for academic institutions, and science more broadly, to make widespread changes to sexual harassment policies, including treating sexual harassment as scientific misconduct and creating resources for individuals within students’ informal support networks, in tandem with efforts to dismantle barriers to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion.